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Mar 21, 2011

Oma: crazy hat lady

This weekend we visited Oma, my grandma. She loves hats! Over her lifetime she has gotten tons of hats, and she's kept most of them. She has hats from the 40's and up, pretty much. I had a blast trying them on, listening to the stories behind them, seeing what was in style way back when! Not to mention, I kinda enjoyed laughing at all the weird styles. :)

[quick note: the only camera we had was a stupid point and shoot that makes me mad, so excuse the poor quality pics! Arg.]

So without further ado, I bring you Oma's crazy hats! (There are waaay more, but I didn't want to kill you with a major hat overload. :)
Keep in mind that these are all real hats that she really wore. o_O

Check out this ribbon hat! Oma said it came from the late 40's. They made ribbon hats and ribbon dresses at that time. She said, "You were considered the Belle of the Ball if you had one or the other." She said a major plus was that they could not wrinkle. I think it looks like a swimming cap. ;)

Feathers!! When asked what type of feathers, Oma jokingly said "Probably turkey" and then started giggling. :)

This one is so strange, you just gotta love it! ;)

This was an Easter hat, which Oma wore with a lavender dress.

I think this one (below) is one of my actual faves.

Oma bought it in Fairbanks at a French boutique in 1956. She wore it with a gold dress that was polyester woven with white and gold and a matching full length coat over top. She wore it to "command performance dinners" and cocktail hours. The command performance was a party called for by the commander of the base. If you were invited, you were not allowed to say no, and they were always formal. My grandpa would wear his army dress suit, not his regular army suit.

Yes, *blinkblink* that feathery pink pouf on top of my head is a hat.

This is Bear, one of Oma's poodles. :)

Check out the amusement and confusement on my face below! What a wacky hat. :)
Oma would wear this hat with a navy style dress. It was navy blue with gold buttons down the front. It had short sleeves with white around the bottom of them.
This was one of Oma's favorite hats, because it was "pretty, different and comfortable. Some of the hats we wore were not very comfortable!" And then she laughed. :)

Here's Oma styling the hats for me. It's weird, but I kept wanting to wear them on the back of my head a bit, cocked to one side. I guess that's the modern way to wear hats or something. But Oma kept telling me not to cock them, and to wear them down on my forehead. It's strange how even how you wear a hat can go out of style.

Oma also has some new hats that are quite snazzy and Oma-ish. :)

Red hat lady, Glamor shot:

Red hat lady, un-glamor shot. ;)

Oh yeah, and Oma also has some wigs!

One Christmas Oma's beauty operator called Opa and said, "I think Betty will really like this for a Christmas present," so he bought it.

The first wigs were real hair. And when they got messed up, you had to bring them to the beauty shop! Oma liked wigs because you could carry them in a wig box while traveling, and then put them on and your hair would look nice and neat.

(I think I needed a comb. :)

Oma actually wore a wig to my moms wedding. I think it might be the same one I'm wearing, but combed a little better. :)

Curly top wig:

And here we are, the two snazzy hat ladies. :)

Oma also told me lots of stories from WWII. It was really great. If any of your grandparents are still alive, I suggest getting some good story time in. It's crazy some of the things they have to tell.